Tirol Chocolate – Tokyo Rusk
I’ve always found it interesting how many souvenirs or gifts that are commonplace in Asia are basically 70% packaging, 30% actual product. Most times the over-packaging leads me to believe the products aren’t nearly as good. I have found, much to my chagrin, that even the good products make use of the over-packaging, and it frustrates me to no end when the only way to obtain the good stuff is the deal with all the excessive packaging. I feel almost bad for tearing into it and being an absolute glutton, but they lave me no choice. I was reminded of all that when I found out about this particularly crossover with the Tokyo Rusk Company, yet another company who plays into that whole shtick.
Each summer Tirol releases a number of collaboration flavours and this is one of the four for 2021. Tokyo Rusk is quite aptly named, as it is the flagship product of the Tokyo Rusk Company. There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind about what this company is about – the signature rusk cookies. Rusk is basically a hard, dry biscuit that’s twice baked, usually bread. It doesn’t seem to be quite as popular here in the frigid North as it is in Japan. I personally love it, but it’s typically not something I would eat on it’s own since it’s so dry, and is just begging for cheeses or spreads with some toppings. I probably see it used more as croutons than an actual snack or something people eat regularly.
In Japan, the Tokyo Rusk Company is one of the biggest brands and they release a whole slew of different flavours like chocolate, caramel, and of course, almond which this chocolate is based off. They also tend to use baguettes as the base, and the tend to be sweet as opposed to savoury. The brand seems to be a popular gift giving brand, as a lot of their products are basically each individual cookie wrapped and packaged in a neat, compartmentalized box. Also makes for a great souvenir for travelers and tourists coming through.
The chocolate smells like a chocolate oatmeal cookie. At first I kind of thought I was eating an oatmeal cookie too, the flavour of the rusk itself is fairly mild, almost in an whole wheat, oat kind of way, and the almonds give it a nice nutty flavour which again, reminds me of wheat for some reason. The chocolate is fairly mild stuff so it feels like it’s mostly the cookie bits doing most of the work. If you like candied almonds, this is great.
The cross section reveals bits of the rusk and almond slices. Because the rusk has so many air pockets and it takes up so much space, the texture is fairly light, crispy, and crunchy at the same time thanks to the almonds. The whole thing comes together tasting like a toasted baguette chip with chocolate and almond slivers. From that perspective, I’d say that it replicates the source material quite well, with the exception of the chocolate. Also similar to the actual cookie, crumbs. Crumbs everywhere. I guess it just kind of comes with the territory.
Unlike the usual biscuit pieces, this uses rusk which is very airy, light and takes up a lot of room. Given that Tirol works in the constraints of standard molds, that means that you end up with a very light chocolate which for better or worse, leaves you wanting more.
